Julie Walters

Founder

A problem-solver and people person by nature and profession, Julie Walters has spent her career connecting start-ups, small businesses, and nonprofits with the talent they need to grow and thrive. After starting her own family and struggling to find the resources she needed to support her daughter, who has multiple disabilities, Julie began putting her talent for connection to use connecting other families with disabilities and rare diseases to the services they need to grow and thrive.

With a B.A from U.C. Davis, a Master’s in Special Education, and years of experience, Julie launched The Connected Parent, a free search platform connecting parents to autism, ADHD, behavior, mental health, and other disability resources, in 2023. The crowdsourced database was inspired by the friends she’d made in the rare disease community and other families living with disabilities across the country, all of whom faced the same frustrations with time-consuming and outdated internet searches, online support group deep dives, and general misinformation when researching the services their children so desperately deserved. In addition to providing authentic, up-to-date, and easy-to access recommendations and reviews, the site has succeeded in creating a community of families, providing connection and support.

Julie, a California native, lives and works in Novato with her husband, two children, and one incredible service dog named Daisy. When she’s not busy with her staffing agency or The Connected Parent, you can find Julie volunteering with the PCDH19 Alliance (a nonprofit supporting rare epilepsy), hiking and running the golden hills of the San Francisco Bay Area, and day-tripping to Tahoe to participate in their sports programs for families with disabilities.